Is The Democratic Party Gearing Up To Nominate Another Candidate Who Doesn't Embrace Change?

Joe Biden-- Status Quo by Nancy Ohanian

Change Research is the best polling firm for the 2020 cycle, at least so far. You should follow them. They just released a pre-convention poll of California voters. Among Democrats, there are just five serious contenders for the nomination, at least at this point-- pre-debate, remember:

Beyond the top line, though, we learn that Bernie has a strong lead (40%) among 18 to 34 year old voters although the older voters are, the more they gravitate towards Status Quo Joe. Among 35 to 49 year old voters, Biden leads Bernie by one point, 25% to 24%. but past 50, it's all Biden's-- among voters older than 65, Biden has a strong 42% lead. Harris isn't as much of a factor as out-of-state pundits who don't know any better thought she'd be. Until this presidential race, many California Democrats barely recognized her name. She has never been an especially popular elected official in California and it's still historically questionable if she even really won her first race for Attorney General.

In the national poll Change Research released this week, they found Biden and Bernie neck and neck among white Democrats-- 25-24%-- and with Biden ahead among black voters and Bernie ahead among Latinx voters. (Nationally, Kamala sinks down into the single digits below Elizabeth Warren (15%) and McKinsey Pete (9%). But back to California, all those old Biden supporters must be wondering why he avoided the state Democratic Party convention this past weekend. Was it because the party refused too re-endorse his top California surrogate, Dianne Feinstein, when she ran for reelection last year? And, remember, as conservative as Feinstein is, she was always to the left of Biden on every issue under the sun.

Writing for Common Dreams Monday, Norman Solomon endeavored to answer the question for them about why Status Quo Joe avoided the Golden State and only comes here to access the golden ATM card of dullard film people who don't understand the difference between a progressive and a conservative. "Biden’s glaring absence from the California Democratic Party convention," he wrote, "has thrown a national spotlight on his eagerness to detour around the party’s progressive base. While dodging an overt clash for now, Biden is on a collision course with grassroots Democrats across the country who are learning more about his actual record and don’t like it." Imagine if film people read another other than scripts and celebrity gossip! Biden would have no campaign cash except what he gets from Wall Street!

Inside the statewide convention in San Francisco over the weekend, I spoke with hundreds of delegates about Biden while leafletting with information on his record. I was struck by the frequent intensity of distrust and even animosity; within seconds, after glancing at his name and photo at the top of the flyer, many delegates launched into some form of denunciation.

I often heard delegates bring up shameful milestones in Biden’s political history-- especially his opposition to busing for school desegregation, treatment of Anita Hill in the Clarence Thomas hearings, leading role in passage of the 1994 crime bill, career-long services to corporate elites, and powerful support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

It may have been a dumb tactical move for Biden to stay away from the convention. Its 3,400 delegates included core Democratic activists and leaders from around the state. Even some of the pro-Biden delegates said they were miffed that he wasn’t showing up-- in contrast to the 14 presidential candidates who accepted invitations to address the convention. (Biden chose to be in Ohio instead, speaking at a Human Rights Campaign gala in support of LGBTQ rights.)

Nationwide, Biden generated headlines like this one in USA Today: “Biden Faces Stiff Criticism from Democrats for Skipping California Convention.” Interviewed for that news story, I said: “He was not going to be very popular at this convention, but his refusal to show up only reinforces the idea that he’s an elitist and he is more interested in collecting big checks in California than being in genuine touch with grassroots activists and people who care about the Democratic Party’s future.”

Yet if Biden had shown up, it’s quite likely he would have been met with a storm of protest on the convention floor. That’s because so many of the state’s Democratic delegates are vocally opposed to the root causes and effects of institutionalized racism, war, systemic assaults on the environment and overall corporate power.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Looking ahead, Biden will strive to avoid, as much as possible, any uncontrolled situation that could disrupt his pose as an advocate for the middle class and the poor. He least needs wide circulation of accurate information about his political record.

I worked with a few other delegates to blanket the convention with a RootsAction flyer that included some revealing quotes from Biden and facts about his record. We got some pushback from people who didn’t like seeing distribution of such critical material. But many more said that they appreciated it.

Polls show that Biden has little support among young people. Many share the basic outlook of a 19-year-old Sanders supporter at the convention, Yvette Flores, who told Bloomberg News: “Everything he stands for is against the interests of the working class and young Democrats.”

While a dozen of the presidential contenders who spoke were unimpressive or worse, two were far and away the progressive standouts.

Bernie Sanders (whom I actively support) delivered a cogent and fiery speech on Sunday. “There is a debate among presidential candidates who have spoken to you here in this room-- and those who have chosen for whatever reason not to be in this room-- about the best way forward," he said. “In my view, we will not defeat Donald Trump unless we bring excitement and energy into the campaign, and unless we give millions of working people and young people a reason to vote and a reason to believe that politics is relevant to their lives.” And: “We have got to make it clear that when the future of the planet is at stake there is no middle ground.”

The other great speech came from Elizabeth Warren, who also deftly skewered Biden along the way. “Big problems call for big solutions,” she said. “And some Democrats in Washington believe the only changes we can get are tweaks and nudges. If they dream, they dream small. Some say if we all just calm down, the Republicans will come to their senses.” Warren added: “Here’s the thing. When a candidate tells you about all the things that aren't possible, about how political calculations come first . . . they’re telling you something very important—they are telling you that they will not fight for you.”

Her reference to the distant Joe Biden was crystal clear.

Usually if you want to list the most vile and repulsive Clintonistas who have sold out most completely and gone over to Fox, Mark Penn, Dick Morris, Doug Schoen, Pat Caddell, Bob Beckel... come to mind first. Yesterday, one of the worst of them, Schoen did a Biden propaganda piece for Fox. Schoen is excited that Biden opposes impeaching Trump-- and will likely pardon him and his family if he has the opportunity-- are is completely turned on by his anti-progressive approach. "Biden's decision to skip California last weekend,' he wrote, "is indicative of his strategy-- while 14 other Democratic candidates took the stage in a solidly blue state to speak to fellow Democrats, Biden spoke in a swing-state that President Trump won by 8 points in 2016, though was won by Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. Put simply, this is the best-- and only-- strategy for the Biden campaign. Since Biden entered the race, Bernie has spent more time in Ohio than Biden has spent in every single state he's visited combined. As usual, Schoen's analysis is devoid of any concessions to reality at all. No wonder he's still writing for Fox! And, again, substituting "moderate" for "conservative," Schoen blathered on...

Biden stands out as one of the most moderate candidates in an overwhelmingly progressive Democratic field and has the challenge of appealing to a progressive electorate, many of whom criticize Biden for his middle-of-the-road stances on issues such as health care.

To be sure, as the campaign season progresses, the progressive further left candidates will use Joe Biden's moderate stances and his reluctance to uncritically embrace a radical agenda as a primary attack point against him.

The few moderate Democrats that did go to California, including former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and former Maryland Rep. John Delaney, were immediately booed for merely warning that the Democratic Party was moving too far left.

Further, several progressive candidates in California took veiled shots at Biden to the joy of the California crowds.

"Some Democrats in Washington believe the only changes we can get are tweaks and nudges … the time for small ideas is over," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

"We cannot go back to the old ways. We have got to go forward with a new and progressive agenda," said Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who trails Biden in second-place by a wide double-digit margin in most polls.

Biden rarely, if at all, responds to attacks from other Democratic contenders, and has focused much of his energy on developing a compelling, empathetic, center-left narrative that stands as a persuasive alternative to President Trump's.

Further, Biden's solidified status as a frontrunner not only enables him to streamline his focus to the general election but also allows him to focus on high-dollar fundraising, which he clearly appears to be doing successfully.

While the Warren and Sanders campaigns have dismissed high-dollar fundraising on the principle that money in politics is intrinsically evil, there is nothing inherently wrong or foolish with courting high dollar donors-- the problem only arises when candidates rely heavily on special interest money, and the two should not be conflated.

Biden's fundraising has allowed him to spend a considerable amount of money on social media campaigns-- so much so that he is outspending President Trump $1.2 million to $900,000.

Although it is early in the campaign season and the first Democratic debate is still weeks away, Biden's candidacy thus far has been encouraging to me as a moderate Democrat. His inclusive, center-left agenda and clear ability to go toe-to-toe with Donald Trump makes him the strongest Democratic candidate to come out of the gate.

However, only time will tell whether the former vice president has the ability to appeal to enough of the Democratic primary electorate in order to emerge the ultimate victor.

Hillary Wants Democratic Party Unity? Let Her Prove It

In 2008 Doug Schoen and his equally despicable partner, Mark Penn, were forced out of the Clinton campaign

Doug Schoen is a Fox Democrat who seems to consider himself a Democrat in a tribal sense but whose policy affinity is conservative. When Thomas Frank writes about how the Democratic Party changed from the party representing the interests of working families to the party representing the interests of the top 10%, he's talking about conservaDems like Schoen, now even a Clinton-wing reject. Schooner opposed Obamacare and hated Obama. Fox News is his ideological home. His column for Forbes Thursday puts forward a Republican delusion that Trump is taking "voters under 29 years old, independents, moderates and even liberals" away from Hillary, although the Republican/Schoen perspective that "just because she’s mathematically cinched the nomination doesn’t mean [Bernie's] devotees will go willingly over to Clinton’s camp" is more or less correct. What the GOP-- and Schoen-- don't understand is that what he calls "Bernie devotees" are not supporting Bernie because of his personality but because of his policies and worldview and may not vote for Hillary-- either by staying home or by voting for Jill Stein (or even Gary Johnson)-- but that they are not going to vote for a repulsive proto-fascist who is daily proving himself to be both misogynistic and racist. Schooner can twist the facts all he likes; he may well have never met a "Bernie devotee," even if he claims that "a colleague of mine spoke to Sanders supporters waiting in line at Sanders’s recent speech in Santa Monica" and found that "their distaste for Clinton was nearly unanimous and fundamentally rooted in a strong distrust of her and her policies... There was a tremendous emphasis on the importance of changing the system. Indeed, they support changing the system and opposing the status quo more than they support the Democratic Party. To this end, many of them said they would write in for Sanders or vote for Trump in the general election if Sanders were not the Democratic nominee." Write in... some will. Voting for Trump... only in the minds of Republicans and Republican-like creatures like Doug Schoen. He marvels that Bernie supporters who are realistically saying they'd vote for Hillary over Trump as the "lesser of two evils," but of course Doug Schoen wouldn't understand that, his entire career been immersed in lesser-of-two-evils politics without even understanding that that's what it always was.

Convinced of their candidate’s righteousness as ever, Sanders supporters continue to cite his better-than-Clinton’s lead over Trump in national general election polls. In the last few weeks, polls have shown Clinton and Trump to be within two or three points of each other. Trump, however, consistently trails Sanders in a general election matchup: five polls in May found Sanders leading Trump by upwards of 10 points on average. And Sanders is the only one of the three candidates with a positive approval rating.

It has become abundantly clear that to defeat Trump in an election that seems to be breaking his way with each day that passes, Clinton must woo Sanders supporters and independents.

No, the election-- outside of the Fox cocoon he's so firmly ensconced in-- does not seem to be breaking Trump's way. In fact, Americans seem to be more and more revolted by who and what Trump is.

In terms of winning over Bernie supporters, there are probably several routes Clinton could take: naming Elizabeth Warren, or perhaps Jeff Merkley, as her running mate would be the easiest (and most superficial). Persuading Bernie voters that the policies he pressured her into adopting during the campaign-- like opposition to the TPP for example-- are real and heartfelt. This is the least easy (and least superficial)... and the most unlikely approach (since her adherence to these policies is neither real nor heartfelt).

I suspect she may try to woo Bernie supporters with something about process, that won't trouble her inevitable shift towards the right for the general election. Last week, Tim Dickinson, interviewed Bernie for Rolling Stone and Bernie brought up "changing the rules that govern the Democratic Party."

[T]he American people, more and more people, are looking at their politics as outside the Democratic and Republican parties-- for a variety of reasons. Some of them think the Democratic Party is too conservative. But whatever, they are independents. Three million people in New York state could not cast a vote in the Democratic or Republican primary for the president of the United States. On the surface, that's absurd. You really could almost raise legal issues. You're an independent in New York, you're paying for that election, it's conducted by the state. But you can't vote? Think about it. And from a political point of view, it is absurd, because independents do vote in the general election. So what you're saying is, "You can't vote now, and we don't want you to come into our party. But you can vote later on." I think that's dumb. Given that so many young people are independent, we ought to welcome them in.

Issue number two is the whole issue of superdelegates. The deck is stacked in favor of the establishment candidate... I think 450 superdelegates committed to Hillary Clinton before the process began. You need less than 2,400 delegates to win. You have an establishment candidate who goes to the governors and the senators and the Congress people and the money people. It would be very, very hard for the best insurgent candidate-- a candidate who did really well among the people-- to take that on. Does that make any sense?

Furthermore, we have to deal with the way that the party raises money. It really is quite amazing. And I feel sorry for her in a sense. Hillary Clinton spends an enormous amount of time-- look at her schedule-- running all over the country. You know what she does? She goes to wealthy people's homes-- and she raises money! Here you are in the middle of a campaign, and she's out raising money. I'm talking to 10,000 people. She's out raising money. We have got to figure out a way in which the Democratic Party has the ideology and the positions that excite ordinary people who are prepared to contribute to the Democratic Party or the candidate.

I think to some degree, we have proven in this campaign, having received 7.6 million individual campaign contributions, more than any candidate in history at this point, it can be done. Last night, we were in Sacramento. We had 16,000 people, OK? How many Democrats are out there talking to thousands of people as opposed to being at some rich guy's house talking to 10 people and walking out with $30,000? This has got to be the goal: to communicate with people, bring people into a political movement. Not just spend your whole life hustling money.

...Let me just give you an example: We were in Denver. We had a rally at 5:00 in the afternoon. We had 18,000 people. People who are passionate about wanting to change America, wanting to be involved in the political process. My guess is that 95 percent of those people had never gone to a Democratic Party meeting-- or ever dreamed of going to a Democratic Party meeting. Two hours later, I walk into a [Democratic Party Jefferson-Jackson fundraising] dinner where there are 1,000, maybe 2,000 Democrats, who are contributors to the party, who are lawyers and whatever, local politicians. Older people, upper-middle-class and professional people-- who are active in the Democratic Party.

There are two different worlds. So the question is: What happens when that 18,000 marches into that room with 2,000 people? Will they be welcomed? Will the door be open? Will the party hierarchy say, "Thank you for coming in. We need your energy. We need your idealism. C'mon in!"? Or will they say, "Hey, we've got a pretty good thing going right now. We don't need you. We don't want you"? That's the challenge that the Democratic Party faces. And I don't know what the answer is.

The danger is, when you bring people in, the whole composition of the Democratic Party begins to change. It becomes much younger. It becomes more working-class. Its emphasis will be less on raising money from Wall Street and big-money interests than on transforming America. That is the dynamic that we're lookin' at.

...Many working-class people in this country no longer have faith in establishment politics. And, of course, that's what Trump has seized upon. He's a phony and an opportunist. But he has seized upon that and said, "I am not part of the establishment." He's only a multibillionaire who has worked with Wall Street and everybody else. But he claims not to be part of the establishment, right? That has created a certain amount of support for him.

Why won't Pelosi back Democratic candidate Mary Ellen Balchunis in PA-07?

That's relatively easy for Hillary to "give in" on without jeopardizing her inevitable rightward lurch. I'd like to add another suggestion for how Clinton could woo progressives. As I mentioned before, the DCCC has steadfastly refused to back progressives who win Democratic Party congressional primaries. When Mary Ellen Balchunis beat the DCCC's lame Red-to-Blue candidate-- in a 74-26% landslide-- the DCCC removed PA-07 from their Red-to-Blue list, wrote off the district and continued trying to sabotage progressive candidates across the country-- CA-25 being a perfect example, where DCCC demands on California congressmen to back their hackish corrupt candidate so offended Adam Schiff that yesterday he gave the progressive in the race, Lou Vince, use of his office for a day of phone banking with California's State Controller, Betty Yee. Even though the state Democratic Party endorsed Lou Vince in a hotly contested contest-- Vince won with over 80% at the state convention-- the DCCC and corrupt establishment Democrats like Gavin Newsom, Zoe Lofgren, Pete Aguilar, Tony Cárdenas and Scott Peters have continued trying to impose Bryan Caforio on the district's Democrats. The DCCC has helped make sure Caforio spent $292,126 on the primary while sabotaging Vince's fundraising efforts-- he's raised $88,674 (you can help him here). Tuesday, will the DCCC abandon the district if Vince wins, the same way they abandoned PA-07 when Balchunis won?

Hillary wants party unity? She should start by ending this kind of anti-progressive wing behavior by the party organs. This cycle, Schumer and Tester have made sure the DSCC has spent more money and resources fighting progressives and nominating corrupt party hacks than they have on fighting Republicans. The DCCC is even worse-- much worse. When Bernie-supporter Tom Wakely won the TX-21 primary against self-described conservative Democrat, the DCCC made the decision that they'd rather have Trump backing, science denier Lamar Smith (chair of the House Science Committee) than help a progressive win. If Hillary wants to prove she's a unifier, let her call Pelosi and tell her to stop sabotaging progressives and to get behind Balchunis, Vince and Wakely. (Balchunis, by the way, has a policy agenda virtually identical with Bernie's-- she defines herself as being from the Warren-wing of the party-- but is an old friend of Hillary's and endorsed her and campaigned for her during the Pennsylvania primary.) And what's with the DCCC's refusal to back Zephyr Teachout right in Hillary's neighborhood?

DuWayne Gregory is the presiding officer of the Suffolk County legislature,and he's running for the blue-leaning South Shore Long Island district Peter King occupies. Hillary won this area when she ran for the Senate and both Nassau and Suffolk counties were Hillary territory in the recent primary; she won Nassau County with 62.6% and Suffolk with 54.7%. Gregory is an admirer of hers and he endorsed her. But the DCCC has refused to get behind DuWayne's run against Peter King, largely because of Steve Israel's loyalty to his Trump-supporting Republican crony, who he has helped keep in office for years. Hillary can put a stop to this kind of bullshit by having one of her assistant's assistants call Pelosi and tell her to "cut it out." If the Democratic Party establishment wants party unity, they better start realizing that it is not a one-way street.

If you'd like to support some of the progressives the DCCC is opposing and undercutting, you can do it here:

David Frum Asks Conservatives To Look In The Mirror-- If They Dare

Two discredited ConservaDems, Patrick Caddell and Doug Schoen-- professionally best described as "Fox News Democrats"-- were back over the weekend, on the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, selling their nonsense about Obama stepping aside for an even more Establishment-oriented Democrat to run. They asked President Obama to take the "moral high ground." These two clowns have no following outside the Beltway, other than on Fox, not exactly a hotbed of Democratic Party politics.

A more intellectually honest argument was being made at the same time by a Republican stalwart unhappy with his party, When Did The GOP Lose Touch With Reality?. But David Frum is no circus act like Caddell and Schoen, and his feature in the new New York, unlike their op-ed, is likely to be taken more seriously-- even if not by the right-wing elites he wishes he could actually reach. He acknowledges that in those circles, his former habitat, he's become something of a pariah. He sounds like McCain may have been the last Republican he'll be voting for-- and like he's ready for some mea culpas to boot. "I am haunted by the Bush experience," he admits, and later points out, "Conservatives have been driven to these fevered anxieties as much by their own trauma as by external events. In the aughts, Republicans held more power for longer than at any time since the twenties, yet the result was the weakest and least broadly shared economic expansion since World War II, followed by an economic crash and prolonged slump."

America desperately needs a responsible and compassionate alternative to the Obama administration’s path of bigger government at higher cost. And yet: This past summer, the GOP nearly forced America to the verge of default just to score a point in a budget debate. In the throes of the worst economic crisis since the Depression, Republican politicians demand massive budget cuts and shrug off the concerns of the unemployed. In the face of evidence of dwindling upward mobility and long-stagnating middle-class wages, my party’s economic ideas sometimes seem to have shrunk to just one: more tax cuts for the very highest earners. When I entered Republican politics, during an earlier period of malaise, in the late seventies and early eighties, the movement got most of the big questions-- crime, inflation, the Cold War-- right. This time, the party is getting the big questions disastrously wrong.

It was not so long ago that Texas governor Bush denounced attempts to cut the earned-income tax credit as “balancing the budget on the backs of the poor.” By 2011, Republican commentators were noisily complaining that the poorer half of society are “lucky duckies” because the EITC offsets their federal tax obligations-- or because the recession had left them with such meager incomes that they had no tax to pay in the first place. In 2000, candidate Bush routinely invoked “churches, synagogues, and mosques.” By 2010, prominent Republicans were denouncing the construction of a mosque in lower Manhattan as an outrageous insult. In 2003, President Bush and a Republican majority in Congress enacted a new prescription-drug program in Medicare. By 2011, all but four Republicans in the House and five in the Senate were voting to withdraw the Medicare guarantee from everybody under age 55. Today, the Fed’s pushing down interest rates in hopes of igniting economic growth is close to treason, according to Governor Rick Perry, coyly seconded by the Wall Street Journal. In 2000, the same policy qualified Alan Greenspan as the “greatest central banker in the history of the world,” according to Perry’s mentor, Senator Phil Gramm. Today, health reform that combines regulation of private insurance, individual mandates, and subsidies for those who need them is considered unconstitutional and an open invitation to “death panels.” A dozen years ago, a very similar reform was the Senate Republican alternative to Hillarycare. Today, stimulative fiscal policy that includes tax cuts for almost every American is “socialism.” In 2001, stimulative fiscal policy that included tax cuts for rather fewer Americans was an economic-recovery program.

Frum should probably ground his intellectual arguments against the Republican Party's descent into treason and horror in Corey Robin's The Reactionary Mind. He may not have evolved that far yet, but he does acknowledge that part of what's wrong with the GOP is that somewhere in the past decade it was driven "to dust off the economics of Ayn Rand" along with bizarre notions like "ultralibertarianism, crank monetary theories, populist fury, and paranoid visions of a Democratic Party controlled by ACORN and the New Black Panthers" which now define the Republican Party. The Tea Party influence? Palin, Trump, Bachmann, Perry, Cain, Gingrich expose "a political movement that never took governing seriously was exploited by a succession of political entrepreneurs uninterested in governing-- but all too interested in merchandising. Much as viewers tune in to American Idol to laugh at the inept, borderline dysfunctional early auditions, these tea-party champions provide a ghoulish type of news entertainment each time they reveal that they know nothing about public affairs and have never attempted to learn. But Cain’s gaffe on Libya or Perry’s brain freeze on the Department of Energy are not only indicators of bad leadership. They are indicators of a crisis of followership. The tea party never demanded knowledge or concern for governance, and so of course it never got them."

Frum's got a long list of well-thought-out specifics that make today's GOP anathema to anyone who cherishes reason: "fiscal austerity and economic stagnation," "ethnic competition" (the polite way of admitting his compatriots are a bunch of racists), and "Fox News and [Hate] Talk Radio." He sounds like a normal person when he writes that "We used to say 'You’re entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own facts.' Now we are all entitled to our own facts, and conservative media use this right to immerse their audience in a total environment of pseudo-facts and pretend information."

It’s true that cynicism is never entirely absent from politics: I won’t soon forget the lupine smile that played about the lips of the leader of one prominent conservative institution as he told me, “Our donors truly think the apocalypse has arrived.” Yet conscious cynicism is much rarer than you might suppose. Few of us have the self-knowledge and emotional discipline to say one thing while meaning another. If we say something often enough, we come to believe it. We don’t usually delude others until after we have first deluded ourselves. Some of the smartest and most sophisticated people I know-- canny investors, erudite authors-- sincerely and passionately believe that President Barack Obama has gone far beyond conventional American liberalism and is willfully and relentlessly driving the United States down the road to socialism. No counterevidence will dissuade them from this belief: not record-high corporate profits, not almost 500,000 job losses in the public sector, not the lowest tax rates since the Truman administration. It is not easy to fit this belief alongside the equally strongly held belief that the president is a pitiful, bumbling amateur, dazed and overwhelmed by a job too big for him-- and yet that is done too.

...Some call this the closing of the conservative mind. Alas, the conservative mind has proved itself only too open, these past years, to all manner of intellectual pollen. Call it instead the drying up of conservative creativity.

New York's companion piece is an essay by Jonathan Chait, like all his writing a complete waste of time, worthless rubbish even when he manages to stumble onto something correct from time to time. The magazine could have saved itself the time and trouble and just linked to the tiny Caddell-Schoen circle jerk in the Wall Street Journal.

R.E.M. Supports OccupyWallStreet-- So Does Every Single Blue America Candidate... But Conservatives Of Both Parties HATE It, Of Course

Yes, R.E.M. may have broken up as a band but they just lent their support to the OccupyWallStreet Movement with their 1987 classic, "Welcome to the Occupation" (from Document). But on Ed Schultz's show Monday night, they weren't asking for rock bands' support; they were asking for Democrats' support. Love Ed! He helped Blue America more than anyone else in the media-- much more-- when it came to our anti-Boehner campaign for Justin Coussoule last year. He nailed it... night after night after night. This Monday night, though, he didn't seem to realize-- nor does anyone in the media-- how integrated so many candidates for office are with their local OccupyWallStreet movements.

I mean if someone is asking Inside-the-Beltway corporate whores like Steny Hoyer, Ben Nelson, Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Max Baucus to come down and join the drum circle... get a clue. These are the BAD GUYS. These people are the problem, not the solution to the problem. We're in a mess today because of conservatives-- not just Republican conservatives, but Democratic conservatives as well-- and conservative in the real sense of the word, not just whether or not someone opposes Choice or gay marriage or how they stand on the divisive social issues. I read these lines from Corey Robin's book, The Reactionary Mind on Nicole Sandler's show Tuesday morning (when normal people were still asleep):

Conservatism, then, is not a commitment to limited government and liberty-- or a wariness of change, a belief in evolutionary reform, or a politics of virtue. These may be byproducts of conservatism, one or more of its historically specific and ever-changing modes of expression. But they are not its animating purpose. Neither is conservatism a makeshift fusion of capitalists, Christians, and warriors, for that fusion is impelled by a more elemental force-- the opposition to the liberation of men and women from the fetters of their superiors, particularly in the private sphere. [Emphasis added by DWT editorial staff.]

Tuesday morning brought a much-discussed OpEd by one of the most corporate-oriented, money-grubbing whores who ever polluted the Democratic Party, Doug Schoen. There are plenty like him-- from a now unmasked Joe Lieberman to a Thomas Friedman-celebrated Rahm Emanuel to a helicopter-flying Harold Ford and the entire Blue Dog and New Dem caucuses in the House and corporately funded outfits from the DLC to Third Way-- who Wall Street and Big Business pay very, very well to pretend to be "Democrats" while hammering home the 1% message. These are the enemies of the 99% as clearly and surely as the Republicans are. There is NO difference, except around the edges. Schoen, posing as a pollster, warned Democrats to distance themselves from OccupyWallStreet. The kinds of Democrats who take the ravings of Citibank's paid shill seriously should stay away from OccupyWallStreet... as far away as possible. Schoen, last heard from demanding that President Obama resign, begins his trash-talk with a dire warning that "President Obama and the Democratic leadership are making a critical error in embracing the Occupy Wall Street movement-- and it may cost them the 2012 election... [T]he Occupy Wall Street movement reflects values that are dangerously out of touch with the broad mass of the American people-- and particularly with swing voters who are largely independent and have been trending away from the president since the debate over health-care reform."

I don't think Wall Street pays him by the word-- although they may-- but, he's dead wrong about his narrative, as he always is-- and misrepresenting his own "poll" numbers to get his political/business point across. Legitimate pollsters-- the ones who don't pull the numbers out of their asses and tailor them to whichever client is writing the check-- have found that 77% of Americans want higher taxes on the wealthy. CNN is reporting a poll showing 76% of Americans want a surtax on millionaires. Yesterday another New York poll, this one from Siena shows overwhelming support from ordinary Americans for the grassroots OccupyWallStreet over the Astroturf Tea Party. Greg Sargent also pointed up some of the specifics of bedrock American working families' solidarity with the OccupyWallStreet movement and how its reinvigorating and enthusing the 99% after a three years of disappointment from Obama and the Democratic Party Establishment. "Working America," he wrote, "the affiliate of the AFL-CIO that organizes workers from non-union workplaces, has signed up approximately 25,000 new recruits in the last week alone, thanks largely to the high visibility of the protests."

The candidates Blue America supports were not asked if they support OccupyWallStreet as a precondition for our endorsement. Their candidacies predate the movement. Their candidacies, however, are animated-- to use Corey Robin's phraseology-- by exactly what motivates the movement. And many of these men and women were among the organizers of the local OccupyWallStreet movements in their home areas. Yesterday, for example, we introduced you to Ken Aden, a young blue collar working guy and veteran from a deeply red district in northwest Arkansas. He's fired up and taking on clueless corporate shill and 1%-er Steve Womack. I asked Ken what he thinks of the Occupy movement. I bet Ed Schultz would love his response:

"I am a staunch and proud supporter of the Occupy Wall Street Movement. In fact, I helped folks here in Arkansas start an Occupy chapter in the Northern part of our state. This is a true grassroots movement made up of young people, veterans, students, and folks from across the middle class just like me who are sick and tired of irresponsible corporations buying politicians of both parties while many in the government stand idly by and give corporate America the keys to the proverbial candy store. It's truly nauseating to know that so many politicians can be so easily bought, and not even loose an ounce of sleep over the fact that they are destroying everything which we hold dear. I  firmly believe that more people need to become involved, and stand up for what is right! Corporate greed is the new pandemic in this country. The ratio of CEO pay to that of the average worker is a prime example of the kind of reckless behavior that corporations in this country are exercising on a daily basis. Just look at how many politicians Koch Industries has bought over the last ten years alone. As the next congressman from Arkansas I would support an amendment to destroy the destructive influence of Citizens United. The last time I checked, corporations are NOT and will never be real people.

Nor is he the only one of our candidates to have been in on organizing. These people aren't like money-grubbing whores like Steny Hoyer and Debbie Wasserman-Fanjul-Schultz and Doug Schoen. These people are in politics because they are activists and because they're fighting for the lives of their families and their friends and their neighbors. "I've participated in three 'Occupy' gatherings in this congressional district during the last week-- Eureka (Humboldt County), Ukiah (Mendocino County) and San Rafael (Marin County)," Norman Solomon told me last night. "I'm in full support of this progressive populist upsurge. From the outset, since launch of our campaign last winter, fighting Wall Street and insisting on economic equity have been central to our campaign. On Sunday, I marched with a few hundred people through the streets of Ukiah as we visited Chase and Bank of America. 'We are the 99 percent!' Our campaign draws strength from progressive social movements because we're part of them!" Ed should have Norman on his show... or Ken Aden. Or blue collar New Deal Democrat John Waltz from Kalamazoo, who had this to say about the Occupy movement where he lives:

"What started out with a handful of folks on a windy day in Kalamazoo ended up growing into a protest with over 200 people as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Talking to several folks I could tell that they were frustrated that the top one percent of this nation is being coddled while the rest of us are getting trampled on. I heard concerns that ranged from economics to education and they were focused on making a difference.

"It was an honor to take part in this day of action in Kalamazoo. While we marched the streets with the sound of chants and drums there were several folks who were honking in support. It appears that the sleeping masses have awoken and there is a sea change coming. Question is whether this can be sustained and the answer I heard was a resounding yes."

"We," not "they." These people don't need permission to get involved with the movement; they are the movement. Nick Ruiz, the Green-turned-Democrat running against teabagging imbecile Sandy Adams in central Florida is, as usual, one step ahead of the game:

"Everyone's trying to figure out how to capitalize on the OCCUPY consciousness. But there's little mystery in it, and nothing honorable in trying to 'profit' politically from it. Reasonably, citizens are ever distrustful of politicians of every stripe because they have seen the political establishment legislate against Main Street's needs too many times to count.

"They 99% want to believe that it is possible to thrive again, in a country whose political establishment continues to fool them with bait and switch politicians who make legislative decisions that instead ensure the 99% will suffer. The 99% want to be represented by people that they can believe in, but they know in their heart of hearts there are few people they can trust.

"The people I spoke with at Occupy Daytona Beach knew I didn't arrive there with my pockets stuffed with $250 and $500 checks from the colossal donor network. The 99% is not interested in fundraising totals for Beltway machinery candidates. They believe in me, because I believe in them, in us-- in the concept of shared governance and socioeconomic fairness. They know I won't sell them out. They know I want the same things they want for America. And they know such a representative is truly hard to find. They won't put their faith and trust, and support in a party or political establishment, that does not include the truly liberal representatives they want to see in Congress and the White House.

"The OCCUPY phenomenon is a national cry for a more liberal, New Deal government. 2012 is going to be a referendum on liberal credibility in the eyes of the 99%. And very few candidates have it."

His neighbor up the road, Alan Grayson, has been pushing the message and inspiring the 99%-- loudly-- for several years. "Having been to the one in Orlando, I can tell you that it's like a street carnival for progressives. Democrats should go, and they should bring their friends. They'll be glad-- and proud-- that they did." Lance Enderle, also running against an Establishment suck-up in hard-pressed Michigan (Mike Rogers) wrote that everyone who knows him "knows I am not a politician that is worried about 'polls', I am concerned with people, and that is what OWS is. OWS is people, it is not a political party or group; OWS is people, citizens of the United States being hit by a force greater than freedom; corporate greed and deception!  I fully support this movement that is based on social and economic justice.

"On October 8th, OWS hit Lansing, Michigan. The citizens set up their camp at Reutter Park, beginning with 2 brave souls. 'Solidarity Park' has now grown to over 100 people nightly, with hundreds filtering through daily showing support for the '99%.'

"I have been amazed with what I have seen in just one week. I have seen and listened to many different views and opinions come together and form a coalition of one. I have watched the citizens feed and clothe the homeless daily from the park. I have watched the old look after the young and share experience and education. I have also watched the young give back the gift of youth and vitality to the old, creating an energy that I have never felt from a group of people before. 

"But, the greatest thing I have experienced from OWS is DEMOCRACY! This is a living and breathing example of what democracy is.

"It is time for Americans to stand up, be strong, and say we are not going to take the greed and deception anymore; stand up for America and our way of life, stand up for the 99%!"

Democratic candidates should spend time at OccupyWallStreet, huh? I bet Ed Schultz would LOVE Lance Enderle. He'd probably love New Mexico state Senator Eric Griego as well: "I was there on Saturday with my wife and son Lucas. We saw seniors, small business owners, teachers, veterans, students, union members and kids. They were diverse in background but united in their belief that we are a community and all in this together. They called for Wall Street reform, investment in our infrastructure to create jobs, and ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Rather than some fringe group it was a slice of America and of our community."

The first candidate who ever told me she was going to an OccupyWallStreet event was Mary Jo Kilroy, a former Ohio congresswoman from Columbus who Blue America was live blogging with early on in the movement. She's recognized instantly that protesters were motivated by many of the same things that have motivated her political life. Yesterday she reminded me that she "spent part of an afternoon with Occupy Wall St. Columbus in front of the Ohio Statehouse. They are expressing an anger many of us feel about conditions in this country. People want good paying jobs, not more bad cuts. I talked to one young African American protester who had obtained a college degree and the only job he could get was delivering cars for a car rental company. He is underpaid and wants to move forward, use his talents and earn enough to have a home and a family someday. Yet he sees little opportunity for him at this time. All these talented young people see in Washington is a willingness to block crucial programs that would help working people, while the banks get bailed out, and corporations are coddled. The unique thing about the movement is that it can express the different frustrations in each community. Right now in Ohio, for example, much of this anger is focused on stopping a huge assault on workers by making sure that collective bargaining isn't taken away and replaced by collective begging. The whole point is that we need to reset our priorities in this country, and I am proud to stand with the 99% in that effort."

Plenty of people for Ed Schultz to have on his program.


UPDATE: What Does Pressure Do?


Rep. Steve Womack (R-AR) is about as far from the 99% as you're going to see. His claim to fame is that he was one of the South's most bigoted mayors (in Rogers, Arkansas, where his motto was "If you're coming to America illegally, you don't want to come to Rogers"). But protesters Occupying Fayetteville and Fort Smith were shocked yesterday when Womack, who inherited his family's radio business, claimed, through a spokesman, that he "supports" the movement. He's been under immense pressure from his Democratic opponent, Ken Aden-- one of the organizers of OccupyNorthArkansas-- but, despite a record that is pure 1%, he seems frightened of a growing populism that could unseat him. Aden's response was "Womack's record speaks for itself... plain and simple. He is a tool and a corporate owned tool at that."

UPDATE ON THE UPDATE: Womack Reiterates That He Hates Drum Circles

No one really believed this creep would support the OccupyWallStreet movement and, of course, he doesn't.

A spokesman for Womack said that Woodard had misunderstood the conversation that he had with Womack’s aide.

“I think there was a big misunderstanding,” said J.R. Davis, a spokesman for Womack.

The congressman, Davis said, does believe that measures should be put in place to make sure another financial crisis doesn’t occur. He supports efforts to combat corruption. But he believes there are better ways to address the issue than to protest on Wall Street.

“He definitely stands by freedom of speech; that is a right. But he doesn’t stand with the philosophy behind Occupy Wall Street,” Davis said.

Ken Aden reiterated his support for the movement and the people in Arkansas who are behind it. "Congressman Womach is clueless and he's spineless. He doesn't understand what regular working folks here are going through and doesn't understand that a real Representative for this part of the state would be standing with the OccupyArkansas movements, not against them."

Aden has been endosed by DWT and you can contribute to his grassroots campaign here at our ActBlue page.